No Liability for Providing User-Selected Category Tags–Whitney v. Xcentric
…USC 230 protects Rip-off Report and related entities from a defamation claim based on user-submitted reports. This is the third time I’ve blogged on this case. The first time, in…
Roommates.com Motions over Batzel Briefing
By Eric Goldman Now that the Roommates.com case is pending en banc, let the games begin! The first round: the Fair Housing Councils want to submit a brief arguing why…
Google’s AdWords Contract Upheld Again, But Advertiser Lawsuit Against Google Continues–CLRB Hanson v. Google
…campaign you submit or modify.” The sentence, “By creating my AdWords Select account, I agree to the above Terms and Conditions,” appeared directly below the scrollable box; immediately below that…
Lead Fraud (A Cousin of Click Fraud)–NetQuote v. Byrd
…method will be gamed. This case nicely illustrates that challenge. NetQuote is an insurance lead-generation system. Users submit quote requests to NetQuote, which in turn sells the leads to its…
Fourth Circuit Rejects Anti-Spam Lawsuit–Omega World Travel v. Mummagraphics
…the plaintiff only alleges nominal damages. Specifically, the court says that “Mummagraphics failed to submit any evidence that the receipt of eleven commercial e-mail messages placed a meaningful burden on…
Teenager Busted for Creating Fake “News” Story
…involves a website, Cheezus.com, that asks the user to submit a name and location. The site then populates this data into a pre-authored “story” about sexual misconduct. You can see…
Database Publisher Gets 230 Defense–Prickett v. infoUSA
…submitted by the anonymous submitter, and SBC published the data submitted by infoUSA–so both are publishing data from a third party. As a result, presumptively the plaintiffs can go after…
Congress Is Lovin’ the Internet…to Death?
…this law’s expansive sweep. It would govern many seemingly-unimportant websites, such as my blogs (which allow users to submit both their first/last name and their email addresses). In some cases…
DOJ Fishes for Search Records, and Google Fights Back–Gonzales v. Google
…when someone resists the initial overbroad request. Basically, the resistance raises the government investigator’s cost, so often the investigator’s path of least resistance is to submit a narrower request reflecting…
RipoffReport.com Loses 47 USC 230 Motion to Dismiss–Hy Cite v. badbusinessbureau.com
…The websites ask users to submit complaints about various businesses. The website operators then post the complaints, but the operators add their own headline to the posting. The operators also…